Listening In

Max and Agatha

In my research on Agatha Christie and her archaeological interests, I came across this five minute interview on the BBC with her husband Sir Max Mallowan. In it he tells how they met, talks a bit about experiences with her at work in the field, and lets the listener in on some of the ways she worked.

The interview took place in 1977 after Christie's death. It is always fascinating to hear the actual voice of someone that I have come to know through writings.

Sir Max Mallowan

Among others, there is also a three minute recording from 1955 with Dame Agatha herself in which she claims that she owes her writing career to the fact that she was 'gloriously idle' as a child and had to entertain herself with making up stories. 

Dame Agatha Christie

Here is your chance to listen in....

Come, Tell Me How You Live by Agatha Christie Mallowan

I am so glad I discovered Come, Tell Me How You Live (1946) by Agatha Christie. It gave me a look at quite a different side the famed mystery writer. It is billed as an archaeological memoir but it is not in the least bit as dusty as the places she writes about.

I thought it would be a somewhat dry retelling of days spent digging in the dirt and cleaning bits and bobs of found broken pottery.

Not so.

Instead, it is her delightful perspective of the people, customs and culture of Syria in the 1930s, the time she and husband Max Mallowan, archaeologist, were there. 

Her stories of the eccentricities of the servants, the tribal conflicts among the workers, the personalities of the house dogs and cats, her hopes for a good meal, the hospitality (and a bit of greed) of the sheikhs, the fussy rules and regulations of the French government officials, changing weather, flooded wadis, temperamental automobiles, fashion faux pas, language barrier mishaps, the handling of medical emergencies, and encounters with giggling veiled women and dirty children with runny noses, are all quite amusing.

It is more of a travel journal than a treatise on the exploration of archaeological sites. And it is quite funny which for some reason I didn't expect. Ms. Christie has quite a sharp eye for the amusing detail.

In the epilogue, written in the spring of 1944, she states that the book is a result of the rough notes and diaries that she kept during their seasons in Syria. It wasn't until after the war that she gathered her notes together as a way of looking again at experiences she "not only had but still has."

For it seems to me that it is good to remember that there were such days and such places, and that at this very minute my little hill of marigolds is in bloom, and old men with white beards trudging behind their donkeys may not even know there is a war. 

Inshallah, I shall go there again, and the things that I love shall not have perished from this earth...

In Which I Begin to Investigate a Missing Vermeer

Girl Reading a Letter by an Open Window
Circa 1659
Could this be the missing Vermeer?

I refused to let my spirits be dampened by the somewhat disappointing read, The Westing Game (here). Therefore, I checked out another book that I thought sounded intriguing  and was mentioned in the recent article about great kid detectives - Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliett.

Just a few chapters in and I am already smitten. The action takes place in Chicago. So far there are three mysterious letters; two young students - Petra who loves words and writing, and Calder who prefers patterns and numbers; their exciting and eccentric teacher Ms. Hussey; the puzzling pentominoes; a missing valuable painting; and, a bookstore.

There are also illustrations by Brett Helquist that contain hidden messages to help solve the mystery.

So, what's not to like?

Here is a brief description of the bookstore:

Powell's was one of Petra's favorite places; it was peaceful, and you never knew what you might find. It looked more like a warehouse than a store -- books were piled everywhere, and the rooms were jumbled together in a mismatched way. Although Petra had been inside many times, it always felt like a labyrinth. One dimly lit area led to the next, and suddenly you were back where you started without knowing how you got there. No one asked if you needed help. No one frowned if you read but didn't buy.

Sounds like my kind of place.

The Summons by Peter Lovesey

Peter Diamond is back in The Summons (1995), the third in the series about this hefty detective who, in the first book (The Last Detective), resigned in a fit of pique from the Bath police department and moved with his wife to London.

Now, he has been called back to Bath to assist the CID and finds himself working alongside officers that he used to be in charge of. Seems a certain John Mountjoy, convicted murderer, has escaped from prison and has kidnapped Assistant Chief Constable Tott's daughter, Samantha, and is holding her hostage.  The ransom demand is that Diamond find out who was really the killer.

Mountjoy has always claimed he was innocent of the murder of a journalist four years ago and it was Diamond's investigation that led to Mountjoy's conviction.

The opening sequence, recounting Mountjoy's escape from prison, is brilliantly played. The action moves along even more quickly from there as Diamond works with the assistance of Inspector Julie Hargreaves to follow the cold trail of clues.

Diamond, who has been taking odd jobs in London - security guard, Santa Claus, supermarket trolley collector - finds he is thrilled to be back on the chase - even as a civilian. He parlays his knowledge of Mountjoy and his new-found usefulness to the police bigwigs into a bid to get his old job back. 

I am so glad that Diamond is back in Bath. Buskers, a funeral for a horse, and a chase through a dilapidated old hotel are just a few of the people and places the reader encounters here. There is even a squad of squatters who have been living in a house thought to have once been occupied by Jane Austen. 

I feel as if Peter Lovesey hit his stride with Diamond in this procedural. It was all very entertaining and I was totally surprised at the identity of the killer. Quite thrilling!

Agatha Christie's Murder on the Links - DVD

I want to travel as Hercule Poirot does. He travels by train and always sits in a first class carriage. He only stays at the finest hotels -his basic requirement is that it employs an excellent chef. He never has to touch a piece of luggage. People recognize the famous detective everywhere he goes. Waiters and hotel staff cater to his every need. His fellow hotel guests are always fashionably dressed - nary a pair of jeans, flip-flops, or scuffed up athletic shoes in sight.

And his clothes never show a wrinkle.

Last night, in celebration of Dame Agatha Christie's birthday, I watched the DVD Murder on the Links. It stars David Suchet as Poirot and he couldn't have been more debonair. He and Hastings have come to Deauville, France; Hastings has just taken up golf and has booked them into a fine hotel with a fine golf course. 

But there is more to be found on the links than lost balls and sand traps. Hastings discovers a body and the mystery begins. 

In this story Hastings, although his golf game doesn't improve, does find romance and, Mon Dieu!, Poirot comes within a whisker of having to shave off his famous moustache to settle a bet.

I recently read this clever puzzler and wrote about it here, so I won't go into it too much, only to say that the film adaption has just as many suspects and surprises as did the book. A really big surprise is that, due to a change of characters, the murderer in the film is different from the killer in the book. Oh, well; I don't care. It is always such fun to see the fashions, room interiors, and location shots in these shows that the plot can take whatever turn it likes.
  
It was all great fun. The only thing missing in this birthday celebration was cake (sigh), and I do love cake.

In Which We Celebrate the Queen of Crime's Birthday

Dame Agatha Christie at her typewriter
(15 September 1890 - 12 January 1976)

This is Dame Agatha Christie's birthday. Today, her cake would have to be large enough to hold 123 candles.

If you are a fan of this mystery writer, as I am, you will never run out of things to read as she penned almost 70 books, over 100 short stories, as well as plays - those with original plots as well as those adapted from her novels.

I saw her play The Mousetrap at St Martin's Theatre in London twice - once in 1982 and again in 2002. I was just as surprised upon the revelation of the murderer the first time as I was twenty years later! It is the longest running play ever. It had its 25,000th performance last November and is still going. I do remember that the audience is asked to keep the ending a secret - my lips are sealed. 

There is much to be learned about this beloved author online and I will let you do your own research if you are so inclined. To get you started though, here is a link to a short video about her courtesy of Biography.com.

Agatha Christie, An Autobiography was published in 1977, the year after her death. I have added it to my TBR list even though it is some 600 pages long! I am currently reading her memoir, Come, Tell Me How You Live, which is a very amusing tale of her experiences with her husband, archaeologist Max Mallowan, in the Middle East. 

Ms. Christie's former home in Devon is open to the public and contains many of her family pieces. It would be a wonderful place to visit. For a glimpse, here is a link to the National Trust's page featuring Greenway Estate.

For tonight, to celebrate her birthday, I rented the DVD The Murder on the Links with David Suchet as the dapper M. Hercule Poirot (my favorite of her detectives). I recently read the book and wrote about it here. It will be fun to watch the story unfold on screen. As I remember, the plot has many twists and turns. Just what this mystery writer is famous for.

How will you celebrate Dame Agatha Christie's birthday?

The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin

I really wanted to like The Westing Game, but I must admit that I was disappointed. 

The story revolves around the sixteen heirs to the Samuel Westing fortune and their hunt for Mr. Westing's killer. The heirs, who all live in the same apartment building, have some connection to the multi-millionaire but no one knows exactly what that connection is. The heirs work in pairs to unravel clues provided by Westing himself. The winner of the game inherits his two hundred million dollar estate. Not bad!

This mystery, a 1979 Newbery Medal winner by Ellen Raskin, has a young protagonist, clever clues, amusing characters, a couple of red herrings, bombs, blizzards and fireworks. There is also some clever word play. 

So what's not to like, you might ask?

For one thing, it is a difficult book to read.  Ms. Raskin many times fails to identify which character is speaking or acting which baffled me and I spent a lot of time rereading a paragraph or section trying to figure out who was saying or doing what. 

Although each character's personality, position, and quirks are well presented in the book, with sixteen of them - plus a few others thrown in for good measure - it is difficult to keep up with them all. I made a list and referred to it often until I got more familiar with them.

Three or four explosions happen in the story, but even after the identity of the bomber is revealed, the reader is offered no explanation or motive for the actions.

To add to the confusion, each chapter is made up of snippets of conversation or action so there isn't much flow. I was jerked from place to another in the narrative - such as it is. And this was written in an age before our minds were totally fragmented by the digital revolution!

I really can't imagine that this book would hold the interest of a young reader. I was determined to get through to the end, but my interest pretty much flagged at about the half-way mark. I continued reading out of sheer stubbornness, not because I was engaged with the plot or characters.

As to the denouement, I don't feel very confident in the solution presented to 'the game.' Even after reading summaries and reviews on line, I am still not convinced. Does the conclusion really make sense? I cannot say for sure.